2014 Rules Test - 4

[noumpere]

R2, one out. On ball four, the catcher misplays the pitch and the ball rolls toward the 3rd base dugout well out of the reach of the catcher. R2 sees an opportunity to advance and begins to do so. The batter tosses his bat toward the third base dugout as he begins heading toward 1st base. The ball and bat contact one another.

 

a. If the act of tossing the bat was determined not to be an act to interfere with a live ball, R2 is allowed to keep third base and the batter is awarded first base on ball four.

 

b. This is interference and the umpire should call the batter-runner out for this act and return R2 to second base.

 

c. This is interference and there are no options. The batter must be called out and R2 is allowed his advance.

 

d. This is interference and the umpire should call R2 out as he is the player closest to home plate.

[JaxRolo]

Not 100% but I say A without looking at the books

[Thunderheads]

concur

[maven]

b

[Forest Ump]

You have to ask yourself, Did the ball hit the bat or did the bat hit the ball? The first is nothing, the latter is interference.

[maven]

You have to ask yourself, Did the ball hit the bat or did the bat hit the ball? The first is nothing, the latter is interference.

 

That's not one of the responses on the test.

[Thunderheads]

 

You have to ask yourself, Did the ball hit the bat or did the bat hit the ball? The first is nothing, the latter is interference.

 

That's not one of the responses on the test.

 

he didn't indicate that it was ......

[zm1283]

A

[grayhawk]

You have to ask yourself, Did the ball hit the bat or did the bat hit the ball? The first is nothing, the latter is interference.

 

No time to look at the books, but isn't that only on a batted ball that is fair, or one that is foul that has a chance of becoming fair?  Passed balls and U3K's are not treated the same as batted balls.

[cookie]

I would choose "a." I look at this as a thrown ball (not a batted ball), so the interference has to be intentional. Since it's unintentional (my judgement), live ball, play on.  

I remember seeing something like this in a game last fall. BR on his way to 1st b/c of an uncaught 3rd strike. As the BR moved out of the box toward 1st, he unintentionally (judgment) tossed his bat into foul territory. The bat hit the ball and no INT was called.

[ricka56]

 

You have to ask yourself, Did the ball hit the bat or did the bat hit the ball? The first is nothing, the latter is interference.

 

No time to look at the books, but isn't that only on a batted ball that is fair, or one that is foul that has a chance of becoming fair?  Passed balls and U3K's are not treated the same as batted balls.

 

I may be wrong, but I don't think that the concept of bat hitting ball versus ball hitting bat is written anywhere in a rule book. This concept is used to judge interference (or not). Passed balls and U3K are different than batted balls, but I think that they are treated the same with respect to interference. And since a passed ball or U3K is the defense's fault I don't think the offense should be penalized if the ball hits the bat. Now B intentionally throwing the bat in/near the ball path is a HTBT situation.  

[hckyosgood30]

The answer is A. Here is your NCAA rule references if you're interested. 6-1-b,  6-1-f,  6-1-h,  8-3-I,  FYI [7-11-n & 8-5-o apply to fair-ball only]